BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Dede Alpert, Chair
1999-2000 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 573
AUTHOR: Alarcon
AMENDED: April 5, 1999
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 21, 1999
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lisa R. Horwitch
SUMMARY
This bill establishes a one-year telecommunications-based
pilot project in Los Angeles County for the purpose of
offering an intensive professional growth program for
teachers in hard to staff schools.
BACKGROUND
Marian Bergeson Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment
(BTSA) Current law provides for the BTSA Program to be
jointly administered by the California Department of
Education (CDE) and the Commission on Teacher Credentialing
(CTC). This program provides professional support for
first and second-year teachers who are in need of
assistance in preparing for the realities of classroom
teaching. The Governor's Budget proposes $72 million for
BTSA in 1999-00, an increase of approximately $4.3 million
to ensure that all of the estimated 24,000 first and
second-year certificated teachers are served by BTSA
programs.
Existing law provides for alternative avenues by which a
person may begin teaching within a school district, prior
to becoming fully credentialed. One path provides for a
candidate to concurrently pursue the coursework for a
teaching credential while being employed within a school
district (District and University Internships). Another
path supercedes the process of the traditional path (5 year
credential program) and the two concurrent strategies just
mentioned. This includes:
Emergency Permit. Current law authorizes the Commission on
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Teacher Credentialing to issue emergency permits to those
applicants who are in possession of a Bachelor's degree,
have passed the California Basic Educational Skills Test
(CBEST), and whose district has declared a need for such a
person and demonstrated evidence of a diligent search to
recruit an accredited teacher, including those pursuing
certification through internship, or pre-internship.
Further, existing law requires that such emergency permit
holders participate in ongoing training, coursework, or
seminars designed to prepare that individual to become a
fully credentialed teacher. An emergency permit is valid
for one-year and renewable on a yearly basis thereafter,
not to exceed four renewals. Prior to each renewal, a
district is required to verify that such applicants are
meeting the ongoing training requirement.
California Pre-Internship Teaching Program. Current law
establishes The California Pre-Internship Teaching Program
(AB 351, Scott: Chapter 934, 1997) providing for the CTC
to establish a district-based Pre-Internship Teaching
Program. Such programs are made available to districts
having a high percentage of teachers who have not completed
the subject matter credential requirements. Participation
in such programs minimally requires: a) Bachelor's degree,
b) passage of CBEST, and c) a specified number of completed
units in the subject matter to be taught (specified number
is set by the CTC). Those applicants meeting these
requirements receive, a "pre-intern teaching certificate."
Existing law provides that such a certificate be valid for
one-year and renewable for one additional year.
Current law also requires that each Pre-Intern program
provide support to its participants, as well as the initial
steps toward enabling these candidates to become fully
credentialed teachers. Such programs are collaborative in
nature requiring coordination with district personnel,
experienced teachers, and colleges or universities.
CTC reports that most recent data (1996-97) shows that
approximately 24,051 emergency permits have been issued
statewide. Of those, 11,384 were issued to applicants
teaching within Los Angeles County. Further, CTC reports
that due to the newness of the Pre-Internship program, the
commission does not yet have an account of total
Pre-Internship Teaching certificiates issued statewide or
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within Los Angeles County since its inception in 1997/98.
ANALYSIS
This bill establishes a one-year telecommunications-based
pilot project in Los Angeles County for the purpose of
offering an intensive professional growth program for
teachers in hard to staff schools.
Specifically, this bill:
1) Requires the Los Angeles County Office of Education to
design and implement the pilot project.
2) Defines "hard to staff school" as:
A school in which 20% of the teachers assigned to provide
instructional services at the school are serving under
an internship emergency permit, or waiver granted by
the Commission on Teacher Credentialing or have served
less than two years.
3) Requires that the pilot program:
a) Demonstrate the efficacy of using an
interactive, online, telecommunications-based
learning model that supports the professional
development component of both the BTSA and
California Pre-Internship Teaching programs.
b) Use the technologies of:
i) Telecommunications-based distance
learning satellites for showing promising
practices and overcoming time and space
barriers;
ii) Videoconferencing for interactive
group work and materials sharing
4) Stipulates the criteria by which an applicant may
participate in the pilot project as:
a) First or Second year elementary school
teacher.
b) Employed in a "hard to staff school".
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c) Currently eligible to participate in BTSA or
California Pre-Internship Teaching programs.
5) Stipulates for those who participate in the pilot
project to receive academic credit.
6) Requires the Los Angeles County Office of Education
(LACOE), in partnership with the CSU system, to
develop the content of the professional development
offered by the pilot project.
7) Requires that the content of the professional
development offered by the pilot project be aligned
with the California Standards for the Teaching
Profession.
8) Requires the CSU system, in partnership with the
LACOE, to design and conduct an extensive evaluation
of the pilot project to determine the extent to which
the project helped to:
a) Retain participants in the teaching
profession.
b) Reduced costs of providing professional
development to new teachers assigned to hard to
staff schools.
c) Improved the classroom management skills of
new teachers.
d) Improved pupil learning.
9) Provides a sunset date of January 1, 2002.
10) Appropriates $1,600,000 from the General Fund, to the
Superintendent of Public Instruction, for the
allocation to the Los Angeles County Office of
Education for the purposes of implementing this pilot
program.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Purpose of bill. The Los Angeles County Office of
Education conducted an analysis of their Spring 1998
Stanford 9 tests results to determine what accounted
for differences in scores between public schools in LA
County. One section of the analysis provided findings
from a study of second and third grade reading scores
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as specifically related to teacher quality and early
reading achievement. The study cites 58% of the
elementary schools in the very poorest communities of
LA County having at least 1/3 of their teachers
untrained. Further, 26% of the schools had teaching
staffs that averaged at least 15 years of experience
compared with only 9% of the schools in the very poor
communities. Conversely, 31% of the schools in poor
communities had teaching staffs averaging fewer than
10 years, compared to 16% of schools in the most
affluent areas. The study ties all of these
statistics to the low achievement of the schools
studied.
It is the intent of the author to provide first steps
toward increasing incentives for the more experienced
teachers to enter into "hard-to-staff" schools; while
concurrently attempting to improve the professional
development opportunities for those less experienced
teachers already employed in these areas.
2) Timing. The bill provides for a one-year program.
The sunset date of January 1, 2002, implies that LACOE
will have a total of two years in which to design,
implement, and evaluate such a program. Unless such a
design is currently underway and that this bill is
truly providing seed money for the implementation and
evaluation portion, it would seem necessary to provide
sufficient time for implementation prior to evaluating
the program impact.
3) Evaluation. The bill provides for an evaluation of
the pilot program by the CSU in partnership with
LACOE. Since the LACOE is charged with designing and
implementing the program; and, the CSU system is
charged with partnering in the development of the
curriculum. Would it not serve the program better to
provide for an independent evaluation? Staff so
recommends.
Additionally, the bill does not require that a report be
produced from such an evaluation. Nor does it
stipulate that the evaluation should be provided to
the Legislature. In anticipation of program success,
thus compelling further legislation in order to
continue and/or expand the program, staff recommends
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that language be incorporated to include an evaluation
report be provided to the Legislature prior to
continuing or expanding such a program.
4) Pending Legislation. Also being considered by the
Legislature this session is AB 1296 (Firebaugh) which
appears to be a spot bill pertaining to this same
issue. Staff is not aware of the author's intentions.
SUPPORT
Los Angeles County Office of Education
Los Angeles Unified School District
Legislative Action Coalition for Arts Education
OPPOSITION
None received